Resource

The subject of this article is from the Visions update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 13 August, 2019.

This article is about the Visions version of Resource. For the Atlas Rises version, see Resource (Atlas).

Resources are the primary materials for multi-tool, starship, exosuit and exocraft upgrades, as well as base building.

Summary

Resources in No Man's Sky are organized as Raw Materials in the in-game Guide based on type. When resources are mined, they are broken down into their chemical elements, and these can be combined into new products to be sold on the galactic market.

Technology is dependent on certain elements, so collecting element resources and alloys can unlock new multi-tools, starships, etc.

Resources can be obtained in a wide variety of ways. They can be purchased, mined from raw elements on the ground of planets (either by hand or with an Autonomous Mining Unit), mined from asteroids in space, harvested from plants, collected from the air (with an Atmosphere Harvester or Oxygen Harvester), given to you as gifts from animals you befriend, found in crates and containers on planet surfaces, and harvested by killing plants, animals and even sentinels. The abundance of elements varies significantly from one planet to another, and may be totally absent on a particular planet. As a result, some resources are easiest to obtain in ways other than mining.

Resources may also be converted into other resources with the use of the three different sized refiners.

Scanning

Scanner "diamonds"

When the scanner is used on a planet, diamonds of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple are displayed after the scan. These colours represent the location of elements belonging to the element groups indicated below. Resources of common rarity will not have the diamond markers. All mineable nodes (chunks of minerals in rock form) will have grids outlining the parts that will give resources when mined. Nodes that do not have grids DO NOT give resources when mined.

Scanning rock formations, fauna, crystals and flora with the Analysis Visor can reveal secondary resources, which can then be mined on all other instances of that scanned object. Flora are the plants and trees on a planet. Fauna means the animals. When you engage the scanner and look at an animal, a red or green dot will appear. Red means undiscovered and you should scan it. Green means discovered already. This dot does not appear when you look at flora. When you have scanned a new species of animal, plant or mineral the scanner will reward you with a small cash bonus. Then open the menu and go to Discoveries. Here you upload all of your discoveries and are rewarded with Nanite Clusters. A wise traveller would visit a Space Station and buy an S class scanner upgrades which boost your cash bonus considerably.

Elements

Icon	Element	Abbrev	Group	Rarity	Base value  units	Added
	Carbon	C	Organic	Common	12.0	1.0
	Condensed Carbon	C+	Organic	Uncommon	24.0	1.5
	Oxygen	O2	Organic	Common	34.0	1.5
	Hexite	X	Organic	Uncommon	654.0	1.59
	Di-hydrogen	H	High Energy	Common	34.0	1.5
	Deuterium	D	High Energy	Rare	34.0	1.5
	Tritium	H3	High Energy	Common	6.0	1.5
	Ferrite Dust	Fe	Metallic	Common	14.0	1.5
	Pure Ferrite	Fe+	Metallic	Uncommon	28.0	1.5
	Magnetised Ferrite	Fe++	Metallic	Rare	82.0	1.5
	Silicate Powder	Si	Metallic	Common	2.0	2.0
	Sodium	Na	Catalytic	Common	41.0	1.5
	Sodium Nitrate	Na+	Catalytic	Uncommon	82.0	1.5
	Cobalt	Co	Subterranean	Common	198.0	1.5
	Ionised Cobalt	Co+	Subterranean	Uncommon	401.0	1.5
	Salt	NaCl	Aquatic	Uncommon	299.0	1.5
	Chlorine	Cl	Aquatic	Rare	602.0	1.5
	Cyto-Phosphate	Cy	Organic Compound	Common	201.0	1.7
	Copper	Cu	Stellar	Uncommon	110.0	1.0
	Cadmium	Cd	Stellar	Uncommon	234.0	1.5
	Emeril	Em	Stellar	Uncommon	275.0	1.0
	Indium	In	Stellar	Uncommon	464.0	1.5
	Chromatic Metal	Ch	Stellar	Uncommon	245.0	1.5
	Paraffinium	Pf	Localised	Uncommon	62.0	1.5
	Pyrite	Py	Localised	Uncommon	62.0	1.5
	Ammonia	NH3	Localised	Uncommon	62.0	1.5
	Uranium	U	Localised	Uncommon	62.0	1.5
	Dioxite	C02	Localised	Uncommon	62.0	1.5
	Phosphorus	P	Localised	Uncommon	62.0	1.5
	Basalt	B	Localised	Unknown	62.0	3.0
	Mordite	Mo	Harvested	Uncommon	40.0	1.1
	Pugneum	Pg	Anomalous	Rare	138.0	1.1
	Silver	Ag	Asteroid	Common	101.0	1.5
	Gold	Au	Asteroid	Uncommon	202.0	1.0
	Platinum	Pt	Asteroid	Rare	303.0	1.0
	Sulphurine	Su	Gas	Uncommon	20.0	1.3
	Radon	Rn	Gas	Uncommon	20.0	1.3
	Nitrogen	N	Gas	Uncommon	20.0	1.3
	Activated Copper	Cu	Stellar	Rare	245.0	1.5
	Activated Cadmium	Cd	Stellar	Rare	450.0	1.5
	Activated Emeril	Em	Stellar	Rare	696.0	1.5
	Activated Indium	In	Stellar	Rare	949.0	1.5
	Fungal Mould	Ml	Agricultural	Uncommon	16.0	1.1
	Frost Crystal	Fc	Agricultural	Uncommon	12.0	1.1
	Gamma Root	Gr	Agricultural	Uncommon	16.0	1.1
	Cactus Flesh	Cc	Agricultural	Uncommon	28.0	1.1
	Solanium	So	Agricultural	Uncommon	70.0	1.1
	Star Bulb	Sb	Agricultural	Uncommon	32.0	1.3
	Marrow Bulb	Mb	Agricultural	Uncommon	41.0	1.1
	Kelp Sac	Ke	Agricultural	Uncommon	41.0	1.1
	Faecium	Fa	Agricultural	Uncommon	30.0	1.1
	Residual Goop	Jn	Junk	Common	20.0	1.3
	Runaway Mould	Jn	Junk	Uncommon	20.0	1.3
	Rusted Metal	Jn	Junk	Common	20.0	1.3
	Living Slime	Jn	Junk	Uncommon	20.0	1.3
	Viscous Fluids	Jn	Junk	Uncommon	20.0	1.3

Natural Sources

Resource Deposits

Resource Deposits are concentrated nodes of a certain element. These nodes may be harvested with a Terrain Manipulator, Exocraft Mining Laser or Autonomous Mining Unit.

• Stellar metal nodes (Copper, Cadmium, Emeril and Indium) and their activated variants have a metallic colour and are shaped like a really rough half-sphere. They have the same colours as the metals they contain.
• Localised elements (Ammonia, Dioxite, Paraffinium, Phosphorus, Pyrite and Uranium) can generate as resource deposits on specific planet types which are similar in shape to those of stellar metals.
• Other elements (Silver, Gold, Magnetised Ferrite, and Sodium) may generate as resource deposits on any planet.

It is possible to find bigger nodes which contain more elements than usual. There's a chance that those nodes can be marked by scanning in space with a spaceship.

Crystals and Minerals

Some elements can also be found in crystalline form, showing up on the Scanner. The colour of the crystal indicates which element is present, and the size usually determines whether Advanced Mining Laser functionality is required to harvest.

• Blue crystals are Di-hydrogen. Common.
• Red crystals contain Condensed Carbon. Uncommon.
• Yellow crystals are composed of Sodium Nitrate. Uncommon. (All sizes require Advanced Mining Laser functionality to harvest.)

Other elements may be contained within minerals. Large minerals usually require Advanced Mining Laser functionality to harvest.

• Ferrite Dust (small minerals on land)
• Pure Ferrite (large minerals on land)
• Cobalt (in caves)
• Silver / Gold / Platinum (rarely replaces Cobalt in caves)
• Salt (small minerals underwater)
• Chlorine (large minerals underwater)

Flora and Fauna

Some elements can be found as compounds in certain flora (including hazardous flora) on planet surfaces:

• Carbon
• Sodium (yellow flowers)
• Oxygen (red flowers/bulbs)
• Marrow Bulb (in caves)
• Star Bulb (on lush worlds)
• Cactus Flesh (on desert worlds)
• Gamma Root (on radioactive worlds)
• Fungal Mould (on toxic worlds)
• Frost Crystal (on frozen worlds)
• Solanium (on hot worlds)
• Kelp Sac (underwater)
• Cyto-Phosphate (underwater)

Additionally, these elements can be collected from fauna interactions, but can also be farmed:

• Mordite (from animals killed by weapons)
• Faecium (from feeding animals)

Asteroids

Certain elements occur abundantly in the asteroids between planets. These asteroids can be harvested with any starship weapon.

• Tritium (common)
• Silver (uncommon)
• Gold (rare)
• Platinum (only from crystal asteroids)

Special elements

Anomalous Material

• Pugneum

Decayed Spacetime Remnant

• Somnal Dust

Disharmonic Metal

• Atlantideum

Highly Refined Stellar Metal

• Chromatic Metal

Junk

• Living Slime
• Residual Goop
• Rusted Metal
• Runaway Mould
• Viscous Fluids

Recessive Creature Genes

• Ancestral Memories

Salvaged scrap

• Tainted Metal

Technological Currency

• Nanite Cluster

Transmuted Metal

• Liquid Sun

Unrefined Organic Element

• Hexite

Additional information

• During an interview with Sean Murray, he was asked how far down you can dig. Sean said "you can dig like 128 meters down into a planet." This sets a limit on how deep mining and exploration can take place.

• When art director Grant Duncan wanted the possibility of green skies over a planet, the development team at Hello Games had to redesign the periodic table to create atmospheric particles that would diffract light at just the right wavelength.

• Sean Murray commented during a gameinformer interview, "We just wanted to be a bit freer. There's only something like seven different compounds or something like that that we create really good types of liquids that you could have creatures survive in. And we might want more than that for the game. We might want to decide our own rules and you just get tied up into too many conversations about it and things like that. Sometimes gameplay and science don't sync together. That's sort of a shame but I think for the best."

• In-game guide added in the NEXT update, which includes Raw Material classification of the resources, see screenshots below.

Release history

• NEXT - This update massively changed most resources in the game, either by removing them entirely, renaming them, or giving them new uses. Resources in inventories from old saves will be replaced by the new ones once they are updated. Refer to the Atlas Rises version of the Resource page for more information on these original elements.
• NEXT 1.59 - Hexite added as part of Community Research (week 2) mission.
• Abyss - Cyto-Phosphate added to some underwater plants.

Gallery

• 

  Raw Material classification by in-game guide (Page 1)
  (NEXT)

• 

  Raw Material classification by in-game guide (Page 2)
  (NEXT)